Reading this story, you may wonder why my father chose to tell such an odd story. It doesn't really fit with the rest of the Poggle series, and does not work very well as a stand-alone. And where, you might also ask, did he get the idea of a tuck shop from?

Ah, well, you see ... that's where you have to know the history behind it. I was about six. Perhaps seven, but probably no older. On the day he told this story, we had had a fundraising tuck shop at my school. And like children, I was very excited by this.

Nowadays, it's not a big deal. But it was something different - something cool. To me, it was possibly the first tuck shop I had seen. My parents never used to let me by sweets, you know. And now I had the chance, because they weren't there.

The Poggles were not the first stories my father told. There were many others, but most of them are just fragments in my memory and I don't remember enough of the plot to write them down. Which is a shame - he doesn't remember them either.

On this day, he said to me, "So, what shall I tell you a story about?"

And I replied, "A tuck shop."

So was born the story of the tuck shop, the iced buns, and the Poggles.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, all those years ago, despite the fact it is mostly improvised and many of the original ideas have been lost. In our hearts, my father and I know what happened. The little details don't matter so much.

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